;?35v 


Ginling 

Nanking 


College 

China 


For  the  Furtherance  of  the  cause  of  Christ 
in  China. 

For  the  Advance  in  education  necessary  to 
provide  trained  leadership. 

For  the  Education  of  Christian  women  for 
Christian  service. 

For  the  Promotion  of  higher  education  of 
women  under  Christian  influence. 


This  NOT  what  IS— But  SHALL  BE 


This  booklet  is  one  of  a series  of  seven 
describing  the  Women’s  Union  Christian 
Colleges  in  the  Orient  and  published  by  the 
Joint  Committee  on  these  colleges.  The 
ten  cooperating  Women’s  Boards  of  For- 
eign Missions  in  America  provide  the  main- 
tenance but  are  unable  to  secure  land  and 
buildings  which  rapid  growth  has  made 
necessary.  All  are  in  temporary  crowded 
quarters. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Laura  Speiman 
Rockefeller  Memorial  Fimd  have  promised 
approximately  a million  dollars  toward  the 
three  millions  required.  This  conditional 
pledge  must  be  met  before  January  1,  1923. 
If  the  story  of  this  adventure  in  Interna- 
tional Friendship  and  the  appeal  for  aid 
seem  important  to  you  will  you  not  send 
your  check  or  pledge  to  the  Assistant  Treas- 
urer of  the  Joint  Committee,  Miss  Hilda 
L.  Olson,  300  Ford  Building,  Boston,  Mass., 
or  to  the  Treasurer  of  your  own  Woman’s 
Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  designating  a 
special  college  or  building  if  you  desire. 


Ginling 

Nanking 


College 

China 


The  New  Campus 


JOINT  COMMITTEE  OF  THE 
WOMEN’S  UNION  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGES 
IN  THE  ORIENT 
1921 


Ginling  Roses 


r A New  Era  ■©■  Transforming  300  Millions'! 
\_America  as  Model  ■©■  Christianity  as  MotiveJ 


Ginling  College 

The  College  of  ‘'Golden  Aspiration” 

HINA!  The  very  name  conjures  up  willowy 
women  of  quaint  and  ancient  dignity  in  rich  silks 
and  gorgeous  brocades  toying  with  fragile  por- 
celain and  budding  chrysanthemums  or  glimpsed 
through  the  bamboo  curtains  of  a dainty  palanquin.  Is  it 
a cruel  awakening  to  come  from  the  China  of  your  dreams 
to  a China  that  has  a postal  system,  telegrams  and  news- 
papers, presidential  elections  and  department  stores,  an  in- 
dustrial problem  and  women’s  colleges?  China  herself  is 
awaking  and  we  have  only  to  keep  up  with  the  times. 

The  Christian  missionary  was  the  Siegfried  who  roused 
Brunnhilda  from  her  sleep  on  the  fire-bound  rock.  The  rec- 
ord of  the  women  in  this  work — in  building  for  the  girls  of 
China  an  educational  system  that  now  prepares  for,  that  de- 
mands, a college — is  a record  of  distinction  and  honor.  The 
mission  boards  of  five  denominations — the  Baptist,  the  Disci- 
ples of  Christ,  the  Methodist  Episcopal,  the  Methodist  Epis- 
copal South,  and  the  Presbyterian,  have  united  in  founding 
and  maintaining  Ginling  College  as  the  keystone  of  their  edu- 
cational arch  from  the  rich  inheritance  of  a Chinese  girl  to 
its  development  as  needed  in  her  larger  life  in  the  community 
in  this  age  of  unprecedented  progress.  When  more  than  three 
hundred  million  people  are  changing  from  an  autocracy  to  a 
democracy  and  are  taking  as  their  model  the  nation  whose 
women  are  more  respected  and  whose  homes  are  more  in- 
fluential than  those  of  any  other  country,  when  China’s  wom- 

3 


Ginling,  a Classic  Name  -Q-  Thirteen  Denominations' 
,A  Lingual  Confusion  -S-  Housed  in  Old  Dwelling 


en  in  ignorance  have  so  dominated  society  that  the  men  of 
the  nation  which  prides  itself  in  its  love  of  learning  are  over 
ninety  per  cent  illiterate;  what  must  we  not  provide  for,  what 
may  we  not  expect  of  these  women  in  intelligence,  in  purpose, 
in  capacity?  Since  Christianity  is  the  only  motive  force  suf- 
ficient to  raise  and  reach  standards  of  democratic  citizenship, 
the  need  of  the  women  of  China  is  higher  education  that  is 
Christian. 

This  is  offered  at  Ginling  College  in  Nanking.  Ginling 
College  bears  the  classic  name  of  the  city — a name  given  to  it 
two  hundred  years  before  Christ  and  dating  back  many  cen- 
turies before  it  became  Nanking,  the  southern  capital.  Al- 
though the  court  was  removed  to  Peking  about  1350  A.  D., 
Nanking  has  kept  her  literary  and  much  of  her  official  pres- 
tige. 

Thirteen  Christian  denominations  have  future  leaders  in 
Ginling  and  twenty-eight  high  schools  have  trusted  her  with 
their  graduates.  This  is  why  it  is,  as  those  who  planned  Gin- 
ling foresaw,  an  asset  to  have  no  preparatory  department  in 
the  college.  If  we  boast  of  our  students  we  can  do  so  without 
boasting  of  our  own  work.  The  schools  have  given  Ginling  of 
their  best  and  the  students  who  have  come  have  been  respon- 
sible for  the  success  so  far  attained. 

Each  student  entering  Ginling  when  it  was  opened  in  1915 
found  herself  one  of  nine  girls  from  as  many  different  cities. 
The  student  body  represents  almost  as  many  dialects  as 
cities.  Any  girl  entering  Ginling  has  had  eight  years  of  Eng- 
lish. To  make  herself  understood  by  some  of  the  other  girls 
she  may  at  first  have  to  use  English  instead  of  Chinese,  but 
she  soon  learns  Mandarin — the  language  of  Ginling,  the  lan- 
guage of  Nanking  and  the  official  language  of  China. 

Almost  as  confusing  to  a new  student  as  the  language  are 

4 


t Spring  at  Ginling  -8-  New  Learning  in  01d~\ 
Courts  ^ Overcrowded  Decadent  Buildingj 


the  devious  ways  between  dormitory,  lecture  rooms,  labora- 
tories, library,  chapel,  and  offices,  through  the  high  silled 
doorways  and  the  maze  of  open  courts,  covered  passages,  de- 
tached rooms  and  gaUeried  suites.  A Chinese  official’s  resi- 
dence has  been  transformed  for  college  uses.  The  past  and 
the  present  impinge  on  each  other  in  this  rambling,  pictur- 
esque Chinese  puzzle  of  a place.  How  would  you  feel  at  a two 
hours’  final  examination  in  chemistry  in  a room  with  twenty 
windows,  each  framed  in  dragon  tracery — a room  you  en- 
tered pushing  ajar  the  halves  of  a round  door  latticed  over  pa- 
per in  plum  blossom  and  honeycomb  design?  By  the  time  the 
final  in  chemistry  comes  it  is  spring.  Off  with  the  fur  cloth- 
ing and  boots  worn  in  the  class  rooms  all  through  the  winter, 
forgotten  the  ice  and  snow  and  the  discomfort  of  having  no 
central  heating  plant,  though  all  the  stairways  and  corridors 
are  out  of  doors.  Spring  in  the  Ginling  garden!  How  the 
students  and  the  faculty  and  all  Ginling’s  friends  delight  in 
it!  The  Wistaria,  and  rose-arched  paths,  the  plots  of  Kil- 
larneys  and  other  hybrid  teas,  the  willow-bordered  pond  and 
the  lotus  pool,  the  rare  shrubs  and  hardy  flowers,  and  in  the 
midst  of  all  a pavilion  used  for  outdoor  gymnasium  and  tea 
house  by  turns;  then  in  the  enclosure  over  the  garden  wall  a 
tennis  court.  As  a friend  of  Ginling  wrote  after  her  visit, 
“That  Chinese  house  will  be  a most  treasured  memory  for  all 
who  have  had  the  privilege  of  living  in  it.  As  the  girls  go 
up  and  down  and  in  and  out  of  those  old  courts  the  new 
learning  and  the  changes  of  manners,  thoughts  and  ideals 
which  come  to  all  college  girls  will  be  tempered  by  the  dignity 
and  the  greatness  of  old  China.” 

And  now  we  want  you  to  know  that  this  property  is  just 
rented,  that  it  is  over-crowded  already,  that  it  is  only  a make- 
shift at  the  best.  As  Miss  Goucher  was  choosing  the  lantern 


Plans  for  New  Buildings  -s-  Beautiful  Setting' 
Thirty  Acres  of  Land  -6-  Tree  Plantingon  Campus^ 


slides  of  Ginling  to  show  while  in  America  Dr.  Reeves  of  the 
biology  department  said:  “When  there  is  thrown  on  the  screen 
that  attractive  picture  of  the  chemistry  laboratory  you  might 
mention  the  fact  that  when  I need  moulds  and  fungi  for  work 
under  the  microscope  I can  scrape  them  in  abundance  from 
the  flag  stones  of  the  chemistry  laboratory  floor.”  Because 
rust  and  mildew  attack  and  ravage  in  these  poorly  construct- 
ed buildings  we  must  keep  the  apparatus,  the  books  and  oth- 
er equipment  at  the  minimum  of  immediate  use. 

And  so  you  must  know  of  our  new  property  and  the  plans 
for  our  new  site.  The  population  of  Nanking,  over  three  hun- 
dred thousand  people,  are  concentrated  about  South  Gate, 
so  the  great  grey  wall  of  the  city,  twenty-one  miles  around, 
encloses  hills  and  fields  and  an  occasional  “deserted  village.” 
On  some  of  these  hills  in  the  west  of  the  city,  where  instead 
of  a compound  wall  twelve  feet  high  our  horizon  is  the  sky 
line,  with  the  moon  at  times  rising  from  behind  Purple  Moun- 
tain and  the  Drum  Tower  silhouetted  against  the  eastern  sky, 
and  on  the  other  side  the  sunset  making  a golden  bar  of  the 
Yangtse  River — on  these  hills  Ginling  owns  thirty  acres. 
Now  that  the  several  plots  in  which  it  was  bought  are  sur- 
veyed and  the  sixty  odd  corners  marked,  and  now  that  the 
removal  of  the  more  than  a thousand  tombs,  which  make  land 
buying  in  China  such  a “grave”  matter,  has  been  about  ac- 
complished, this  is  where  you  may  dream  your  dreams  of  Gin- 
ling, and  this  is  where  you  may  make  them  come  true.  Just 
turn  to  the  center  of  this  pamphlet  for  a bird’s-eye  view  of 
the  buildings  proposed.  These  buildings  represent  invest- 
ments that  appeal  at  the  same  time  to  high  adventure  and 
business  acumen. 

The  Ginling  students  and  faculty  have  been  there  before 
you.  Already  there  are  groves  of  trees  started,  one  grove  for 

6 


GinJing’ s Standards  High  -0-  Comparisons' 
Further  Growth  Awaits  New  Dormitories^ 


each  group  of  faculty  and  classes,  and  one  tree  for  each  mem- 
ber of  the  group,  planted  with  her  own  hands  as  we  celebrated 
our  first  Arbor  Day  on  the  Ginling  campus  in  April,  1918. 

Are  you  wondering  about  college  standards  and  the  work 
done  by  the  eager,  ambitious  young  women  of  Ginling?  The 
entrance  requirements  are  equivalent  to  those  of  the  best 
women’s  colleges  in  this  country,  with  Chinese  and  English 
substituted  for  classical  and  modern  languages.  The  require- 
ments for  a degree  constitute  a full  equivalent  for  the  work 
done  in  American  colleges,  and  to  students  who  complete  the 
approved  course  the  regents  of  the  University  of  the  state  of 
New  York,  through  the  trustees  of  the  University  of  Nanking, 
grant  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts.  The  five  young  wom- 
en who  were  graduated  in  1919  were  Pioneers,  for  they  were 
the  first  women  in  China  to  receive  the  B.  A.  degree  for  work 
done  in  China.  With  the  several  colleges  in  America  who 
are  sister  colleges  to  Ginling  the  equality  of  standard  must 
make  an  added  tie  and  be  a gratifying  commendation  of  the 
work  done  where  their  interest  is  so  keen. 

Of  the  small  group  that  represented  the  faculty  when  the 
college  opened  in  1915  one  was  an  alumna  of  Smith  College. 
This  early  established  a bond  between  the  two  colleges,  which 
later  was  strengthened  through  the  adoption  by  the  Smith 
College  Association  for  Christian  Work  of  Ginling  as  a “sis- 
ter college.”  Denominational  colleges  have  joined  in  this 
movement  until  a goodly  number  of  older  sisters  are  grouped 
around  this  sturdy  growing  young  sister  of  the  Orient. 


The  Land  is  Ours 

On  this  beautiful  site  of  thirty  acres  the  architect  has  pictured  our  drear  >i 

dwelling,  we  are  in  imperative  need  of  the  e : 


The  Buildings  Will  Be 

V'  it  Ginling  may  some  day  become.  At  present  housed  in  an  old,  unsafe 
o Df  the  first  of  our  new  dormitory  buildings. 


Ginling’ s Children  -S-  Teaching  in  Home,  Too 
Day  Schools  -6-  Social  Service  Training 


For  the  Education  of  Christian  Women 
for  Christian  Service 

Is  Ginlin^  a Christian  College?  That  is  the  question 
asked.  This  message  from  Chinese  Students  in  America 
expresses  the  genuine  sentiment  of  the  Ginling  students. 
Their  religion  is  practical  and  applied. 

“We  feel  as  you  do,  that  the  most  essential  need  in  China  is  the 
education  of  her  women,  and  also  believe  that  unless  the  education 
is  solely  crystallized  on  a Christian  foundation,  it  will  do  more  harm 
to  China  than  good.  A personal  knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  great 
need  of  the  women  of  all  lands.” 

— Chinese  Wonnen  Students  in  America  to  Ginling  College. 

The  Ginling  girls  as  soon  as  they  had  discovered  them- 
selves and  each  other,  instead  of  “burying  their  heads  among 
books,”  raised  them  and  looked  across  the  road  at  the  chil- 
dren there.  Then  going  “East,  South,  West  and  North,”  (as 
the  Chinese  say),  they  invited  their  little  neighbors  to  Sun- 
day School.  They  came,  and  have  come,  more  and  more  ever 
since.  Not  when  it  rains — no — they  have  not  enough  clothes 
to  risk  getting  a wetting.  But  on  fair  days  the  little  school 
has  varied  from  15  to  62  children.  On  Sunday  afternoon, 
long  before  two  o’clock,  the  great  Chinese  hall,  which  is  used 
as  a chapel,  is  filled  with  tiny  tots.  Then  if  you  walk  through 
several  courts  to  the  Chinese  classics  room  with  its  quaint 
doorway,  you  will  find  another  group  nearly  as  large,  moth- 
ers listening  to  the  girls’  messages  of  home  keeping  and 
simple  Christian  truth.  Then  if  we  follow  the  girls  into  the 
city  we  will  find  them  in  humble  homes  teaching  Bible  classes 
and  in  community  centers  gathering  the  women  and  children 
around  them  for  instruction  in  subjects  relating  to  home  and 
to  social  life. 


10 


r Many  Opportunities  for  Christian  Service 
\_Graduates  are  Pioneers  in  Many  Walks  of  Life 


Another  interesting  activity  is  the  day  school  which  the 
students  planned,  equipped,  financed,  opened  and  still  teach 
and  manage  entirely  alone.  The  pupils  are  over  thirty  little 
girls,  eight  to  fourteen  years  old,  chosen  from  the  neighbor- 
hood Sunday  school.  Both  of  these  projects  are  of  far-reach- 
ing influence  in  the  community  and  furnish  good  pedagogic 
practice  and  social  service  training  for  college  girls.  The 
students  also  assist  in  Sunday  schools  in  several  of  the 
Nanking  churches  and  a group  is  taking  charge  of  Sunday 
school  work  in  a government  orphanage. 

The  opportunities  that  are  afforded  the  graduates  of  Gin- 
ling  College  for  service  are  illustrated  by  the  experience  of 
the  members  of  the  first  class.  Every  member  of  the  class 
had  at  least  three  positions  offered  her  during  the  spring  of 
her  Senior  year.  About  half  had  decided  to  teach  and  the 
other  half  were  divided  in  their  plans  between  evangelistic 
work  and  the  study  of  medicine.  The  enthusiastic  beginnings 
of  religious  and  social  work  in  college  give  promise  of  some 
kind  of  public  service  even  after  marriage. 

The  idea  of  pioneering  has  been  a powerful  one  in  minds  of 
the  first  students  to  graduate  at  Ginling  College,  They  ex- 
pressed it  in  the  symbol  on  their  class  pin — a crossed  axe  and 
chisel.  One  of  these  “Pioneers”  (1919),  after  teaching  at 
the  Woman’s  Higher  Normal  School  of  Peking,  was  made 
head  of  the  English  Department  of  that  great  Chinese  Gov- 
ernment school,  and  called  another  of  the  same  class  to  help 
her.  This  young  woman,  in  order  to  accept  this  position,  left 
the  Government  Normal  College  in  Nanking,  where  the  pre- 
vious year  she  had  been  teaching  boys  and  had  most  satisfac- 
torily fulfilled  her  responsibility  as  head  of  the  Woman’s  De- 
partment of  the  first  co-educational  experiment  in  Central 
China.  From  one  of  the  latest  graduates  who  is  now  teaching 

11 


Biology 


Miss  Butler’s  Class 


tA  Dream?  No,  a True  Vision' 
which  You  May  Help  Us  Realize^ 


in  an  Anglo-Chinese  school  in  Singapore  comes  the  news  that 
she  is  “the  only  educated  one  who  is  allowed  to  teach  in  for- 
eign schools.”  The  British  Government  does  not  permit 
others  who  are  educated  in  China  to  teach  any  but  Chinese 
children.  Another  member  of  the  class  of  1920  is  the  assist- 
ant principal  of  the  Young  Women’s  Christian  Association 
Physical  Training  School  in  Shanghai. 

Professor  H.  H.  Wilder  of  Smith  College,  sends  an  essay 
written  by  one  of  the  students  of  Ginling  upon  a theme  given 
them  in  the  class  room,  “A  dream  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in 
China.”  In  straightforward,  simple  language,  with  vision  and 
spiritual  insight  worthy  of  a prophet  she  portrays  her  dream 
of  the  day  in  China  for  which  God’s  church  works  and  waits 
and  prays.  In  closing  she  says,  “Even  though  this  dream  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  in  China  seems  as  if  it  is  our  remote,  un- 
attainable aim,  the  beginning  and  the  approaching  of  the  aim 
is  not  far  away,  but  here  and  now  in  China.” 

Professor  Wilder  adds,  “Here  the  essay  ends.  I look  up 
from  my  reading  and  see  the  girls  of  Ginling  in  silks  of  every 
imaginable  hue  passing  and  repassing  beneath  the  roses.  Oh! 
it  is  not  a dream,  thank  God,  not  all  of  it.  Thousands  of 
young  people,  thoroughly  awake  to  the  situation  are  ready, 
not  merely  to  dream  but  to  act,  and  the  oldest  empire  of  the 
world  is  awakening  from  its  long  sleep,  not  as  a menace,  but 
as  the  newest  and  perhaps  the  greatest  auxiliary.  ‘The  begin- 
ning and  the  approaching  of  the  aim  is  not  far  away,  but  here 
and  now  in  China.’  ” 

As  you  read  the  story  of  Ginling  as  it  is  told  here,  you  will 
see  an  opportunity  to  be  among  the  founders,  the  builders,  of 

13 


Class  of  1921 


Further  Growth  Dependent  on  Aid~\ 
Ginling  Will  Appreciate  Your  HelpJ 


a woman’s  college  for  China  at  the  moment  when  such  a col- 
lege can  take  a wonderful  part  not  only  in  the  development 
of  the  country,  but  in  giving  to  the  Chinese  Christian  church 
leaders  with  vision  and  practical  knowledge  that  can  trans- 
form the  next  generation.  It  is  not  enough  to  train  men  as 
leaders.  As  the  women,  the  home  will  be;  as  the  home,  so  the 
nation  will  be — Christian  or  non-Christian. 

Ginling  College  has  made  an  enviable  record  during  the 
few  years  of  its  history.  Further  growth  is  impossible  in 
its  present  rented  quarters.  Both  the  development  of  the 
college  and  the  health  of  the  faculty  and  students  make  the 
speedy  transfer  of  the  college  to  its  new  site  one  of  importance 
and  urgency.  The  alumnae  have  organized  for  a campaign  to 
secure  funds  for  the  erection  of  one  of  the  dormitories.  Be- 
lievers in  international  good-will  and  world  fellowship,  up- 
lifters  of  earth’s  womanhood,  lovers  of  the  Church  of  Christ 
— all  are  given  an  opportunity  to  contribute  to  the  great  goal 
by  having  a share  in  the  new  pioneer  adventure  of  actually 
creating  a whole  college  campus  for  eight  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  The  land  has  been  purchased.  The  students  are 
waiting.  Shall  we  not  house  them? 


15 


FLess  than  $800,000  Needed  to  Provide~\ 

L^5  Buildings  and  Equ  ip  me  nt^ 

Building  Program 

First  Group 

Dormitories  (4)  for  students  $136,000 

Recitation  Building  48,000 

Science  Building  50,000 

Social  and  Athletic  Building  50,000 

Faculty  Residence  35,000 

Equipment  50,000 

Furnishings  15,000 

Contingent  Fund 50,000 


$434,000 

Second  Group 

Chapel  $ 34,000 

Library  37,000 

Dormitories  (4)  for  200  students 136,000 

Faculty  Residence  35,000 

Equipment  50,000 

Furnishings  15,000 

Contingent  Fund  50,000 


$357,000 

TOTAL  $791,000 


16 


[Responsible  Supporters  are  with  You' 
Able  Leaders  Directing  the  Work 


Co-operating  Boards 

Woman’s  American  Baptist  Foreign  Mission  Society 
Christian  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 

Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society, 
t Methodist  Episcopal  Church 

Board  of  Missions,  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South 

Woman’s  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
Presbyterian  Church  in  the  U.  S.  A. 

Association  for  Christian  Work,  Smith  College 


Ginling  College  Committee 

. Chairman 

Robert  E.  Speer,  156  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York 

T reasurer 

Russell  Carter,  156  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York 

Secretary 

Miss  Elizabeth  R.  Bender,  150  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York 

Chairman  Candidates  Committee 
Miss  Margaret  E.  Hodge,  156  Fifth  Ave.,  New  York 

Frank  Mason  North  Mrs.  Henry  W.  Peabody 

Mrs.  Anna  R.  Atwater  Miss  Mabel  K.  Howell 

t 

Professor  Irving  F.  Wood,  Advisory  Member 

President  of  the  College 
Mrs.  Lawrence  Thurston,  Nanking,  China 


Looking  Through  One  of  the  Many  Moon  Gates  at  Ginling 


